_Quibus id ludicrum. For whom it is a sport_; not whose business it is to
furnish the amusement: that would be _quorum est_ K. and Gr.
_Infestas_==porrectas contra saltantes. K.--_Decorem_. Poetic.
_Quaestum_==quod quaeritur, _gain_.--_Mercedem_, stipulated pay, _wages_.
_Quamvis_ limits _audacis_==_daring as it is_ (as you please).
_Sobrii inter seria_. At Rome gaming was forbidden, except at the
Saturnalia, cf. Hor. Od. 3, 24, 68: vetita legibus alea. The remarkable
circumstance (_quod mirere_) in Germany was, that they practised it not
merely as an amusement at their feasts, but when sober among (_inter_)
their ordinary every-day pursuits.
_Novissimo. The last_ in a series. Very frequently in this sense in T.,
so also in Caes. Properly newest, then latest, _last_. Cf. note, His. 1,
47. _Extremo_, involving the greatest hazard, like our _extreme: last and
final_ (decisive) _throw_. This excessive love of play, extending even to
the sacrifice of personal liberty, is seen also among the American
Indians, see Robertson, Hist. of America, vol. 2, pp. 202-3. It is
characteristic of barbarous and savage life, cf. Mur. in loco.
_De libertate ac de corpore_. Hendiadys==_personal liberty_.
_Voluntariam_. An earlier Latin author would have used _ipse, ultro_, or
the like, limiting the subject of the verb, instead of the object. The
Latin of the golden age prefers _concrete_ words. The later Latin
approached nearer to the English, in using more _abstract_ terms. Cf.
note on _repercussu_, 3.
_Juvenior. More youthful_, and therefore more vigorous; not merely
younger (_junior_). See Död. and Rit. in loc. Forcellini and Freund cite
only two other examples of this full form of the comparative (Plin. Ep.
4, 8, and Apul. Met. 8, 21), in which it does not differ in meaning from
the common contracted form.
_Ea_==talis or tanta. _Such_ or _so great_. Gr.
_Pervicacia. Pervicaces_ sunt, qui in aliquo certamine _ad vincendum_
perseverant, Schol. Hor. Epod. 17, 14.
_Pudore_. Shame, _disgrace_. So also His. 3, 61; contrary to usage of
earlier writers, who use it for sense of shame, _modesty_.
XXV. _Ceteris_. All but those who have gambled away their own liberty, as
in § 24.--_In nostrum morem_, &c., with specific duties distributed
through the household (the slave-household, cf. note, 15), as explained
by the following clause. On the extreme subdivision of office among
slaves at _Rome_, see Beck. Gall. Exc. 2. Sc. 2; and Smith's Dic. Antiq.
under Servus.
_Descripta_==dimensa, distributa. Gün.
_Familiam_. Here the entire _body of servants_, cf. note, § 15.
_Quisque_. Each _servant_ has his own house and home.
_Ut colono_. Like the _tenant_ or _farmer_ among the Romans; also the
vassal in the middle ages, and the serf in Modern Europe.
_Hactenus. Thus far_, and _no farther_, i.e. if he pays his rent or tax,
no more is required of him.
_Cetera_. The _rest of the duties_ (usually performed by a _Roman
servant_), viz. those of the _house, the wife and children_ (sc. of the
master) _perform_. Gr. strangely refers _uxor et liberi_ to the wife and
children of the servant. Passow also refers _domus_ to the house of the
servant, thus making it identical with the _penates_ above, with which it
seems rather to be contrasted. With the use of _cetera_ here, compare
His. 4, 56: _ceterum vulgus_==the rest, viz. the common soldiers, and see
the principle well illustrated in Döderlein's Essay, His. p. 17.
_Opere. Hard labor_, which would serve as a punishment. The Romans
punished their indolent and refractory domestics, by sending them to
labor in the _country_, as well as by heavy chains (_vinculis_) and cruel
flagellations (_verberare_). They had also the power of life and death
(_occidere_). Beck. Gall. Exc. 2. Sc. 2; Smith's Dic. Ant. as above.
_Non disciplina--ira_. Hendiadys==non disciplinae severitate, sed irae
impetu. Cf. His. 1, 51: _severitate disciplinae_.
_Nisi--impune_, i.e. without the pecuniary penalty or satisfaction, which
was demanded when one put to death an enemy (_inimicum_). Cf. 21.
_Liberti--libertini_. These words denote the same persons, but with this
difference in the idea: _libertus_==the freedman of some particular
master, _libertinus_==one in the _condition_ of a freedman without
reference to any master. At the time of the Decemvirate, and for some
time after, liberti==emancipated slaves, libertini==the descendants of
such, cf. Suet. Claud. 24.
_Quae regnantur. Governed by kings_. Ex poetarum more dictum, cf. Virg.
Aen. 6, 794: regnata per arva. So 43: Gothones regnantur, and 44:
Suiones. Gün.
_Ingenuos_==free born; _nobiles_==high born.
_Ascendunt_, i.e. ascendere possunt.
_Ceteros_. By synesis (see Gr.) for ceteras, sc. gentes.
_Impares_, sc. ingenuis et nobilibus.
_Libertatis argumentum_, inasmuch as they value liberty and citizenship
too much to confer it on freedmen and slaves. This whole topic of
freedmen is an oblique censure of Roman custom in the age of the
Emperors, whose freedmen were not unfrequently their favorites and prime
ministers.